Hi All - in my 98 Elise the gearbox, especially 1st and reverse, stick a lot after a “spirited” drive and sometimes they will almost lock. Someone told me there was an issue with the clutch hose but I’ve not found anything on any message boards etc.
Are you having trouble getting into gear, or out?There is a known problem, as you say, with the clutch hose on early cars. Basically the hose was rubber, and when hot it expands when you press the pedal down. This means that the clutch doesn’t disengage fully.Usually only a problem after a spirited drive on a hot day.The initial attempt at fixing this was to re-route the hose away from the coolant pipes. This worked for some people, but not others.The real fix is a braided steel hose which won’t expand.You can probably see the hose attached to the master cylinder under the front bonnet. If it’s an (orange?) rubber thing, you want it replaced.This was a warranty issue, but I’m not sure if Lotus will sort this out on a car of that age.Hope this is of some help.
Loads of stuff on this at www.british-cars.co.uk under Elise technical, also a bit under gearbox at www.elise-faq.info . Brendan explained pretty much what it is. Dealers have in some cases been persuaded to replace the hose for free, but not fit it as it is a bitch of a job - service manual quotes about 8 hours or something, basically because the hose is routed through the chassis rails. However it is possible to route a new braided hose through the centre of the cabin where the other cables are hidden.Cheers
Had the same type of thing recently, gave it large on B roads back from Cheltenham, had problems getting gears, particularly 4th to 3rd. Assumed it was connected with heat, thought it might be the gear linkage to the box being affected as opposed to clutch hose, obviously as this has been fixed by the operation mentioned above, I’ll make sure my brains in gear before I put my mouth into motion [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/image]Phil GT
![http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/image]Phil](http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/rolleyes.gif%5B/image%5DPhil){kind=link}